NYC Cracks Down On Scammer Tow Companies

City tow-truck companies are hauling off legally parked cars and then shaking down their hapless owners for cash – threatening to take their vehicles to the impound yard if they don’t cough up the dough.

The scam, orchestrated by dozens of towing firms, has been occurring in places motorists often consider the safest areas to park, such as the public lots of major shopping plazas, city Department of Consumer Affairs Commissioner Jonathan Mintz told The Post.

More than 50 tow companies had their licenses revoked and another 19 suspended since October 2009 when hundreds of people began flooding the city’s 311 line with complaints of being improperly towed, according to DCA data.

Perhaps the most notorious offender was the now-defunct firm Fastway Towing & Recovery of Brooklyn.

The company and its owner, Zbigniew Filipowicz, were hit with $1.2 million in fines and forced to surrender the firm’s towing license after it was found to have improperly towed some 1,200 cars, DCA documents show.

First it would tow a legally parked car around the corner, out of sight of its owner. Fastway’s “agents” on the lot would then tell the harried owner to fork over $200 for immediate return of the car or go to its impound lot the next day and pay $100, the victims claimed.

The scam was pulled as often as 20 times an hour, according to the DCA.